The Last Place to Stand (11 page)

“That is a good thought,” said Zosimus. “That is a very good thought.”

After a short pause, Zosimus continued, “You know, I enjoy thinking more than I ever imagined I would. When I had the feeds, I never could think. I did not have time, or headspace. I was lacking a whole life in just thinking. Now I like to observe and then think about what I observed. I like to listen and then think about what I heard. Then there are times that I will just think about things I have thought about before, but from a different perspective. I think that is one thing I enjoy most: the ability to think.”

She looked at him and smiled. “It's a wonderful thing, isn't it?”

“It certainly is,” he said. “And what you told me about the past tragedy giving me hope for the future. That was something to think about too.”

“I'm glad to hear it,” she said.

Odysseus approached the fire.

“Hello, Odysseus,” said Poke.

“Hello, Poke,” said Odysseus. “And hello to you X4287.”

“My name is Zosimus,” said Zosimus. “It means likely to survive.”

“A very good name,” said Odysseus. Then turning to Poke, “My wife and I are very excited about the new place. We have talked about how it should look and where the windows will face. I can't believe such possibilities exist. In the city there were no choices. No choice of a spouse, or a job, or a place to live. Everything was assigned to you. I certainly am happy with my wife, but the other choices were much less to be happy about.”

“Yes, choice is a wonderful thing,” said Poke.

“You know, one thing my wife and I have been discussing lately?”

“What's that,” said Poke, staring at the fire.

Odysseus sat down next to Poke and across from Zosimus. “We heard that in this area there is a rite that is observed when two people want to get married. I know we have been together for a long time, my wife and I, but we had never heard of such a thing before. We were expected to move in together when the government gave us the assignment.”

Odysseus started to stare at the fire as well now. “It would mean a lot if we could go through the rite of marriage because it was something we chose. It would mean a lot to both of us. It is one thing to know the other person has to be there for you. It is another to know the other person wants to be there for you.”

“Yes, that's right,” said Poke. “I understand that.”

“So, how do I go about it?” asked Odysseus.

She smiled, and looking up at Odysseus, she said, “Well, that takes a little bit of planning.”

The patient had not stirred that night at all, according to the cameras. Dr. Chin was in the room with him now, looking at his statistics, reading the brain activity. Now that the brain was no longer calling the shots except through the gateway of the processor, irregular activity was their main concern. But it seemed that the chip was controlling all primary functions as it ought to be. The brain was acting in a healthy, normal way, even through the intervention of the chip.

On another bank of diagnostic screens, Dr. Chin noticed that the chip was clearly taking on some activity as well. It was analyzing the functions of the brain, certain bodily functions and capabilities, and was so far performing a basic assessment of its environment before taking much of a mental load from the patient’s own brain. This was good. It was precisely the way the chip was designed. And since the chip included the most advanced AI systems, it was learning and developing its awareness and ability.

Yes, things were going very well.

The Doctor checked his own chip clock. It was time for lunch. Good, he was getting hungry, and would like to sit for a while anyway. He left the room thinking of all the advancements coming up for the regular population if this experiment worked out.

After lunch, Dr. Chin came back to see how the patient was doing. Vital signs good. Brain activity…brain activity was slowed a bit. It was not at dangerously low levels, just less. He took a look at the chip’s functionality. It had increased its activity since before lunch. It appeared that the chip was now taking on part of the load of the thought processes of the patient. That was good as well.

He checked the patient's eyes. He was currently in REM sleep. That meant that the brain and the chip were sharing a dream. Very interesting. He never would have thought of the possibility that a chip could share in this process. There had been no AI to date that could dream. This was advancing the known science of bioengineering and AI technology. Dr. Chin recorded these observations mentally and sent a feed to the respective scientific communities who had clearance and who would benefit from the knowledge. The Operations Manager would want to know about this also, so he sent a special message to him.

Wonderful. A good day and a good job. He might as well let the patient rest. Although his body so far seemed at rest, his mind was racing and learning. Modern technology, he thought, is an amazing thing.

As he turned to leave the room, the patient's eyes opened. He looked in the direction of the leaving Doctor, and then closed them again.

Sydney first had to propose. That was the way it was done Poke had said.

So, on an evening when he could leave the children at home, he and his wife left to go outside for a walk. They loved to walk now that there was something besides the city to look at. Usually, the whole family would be reading a story out loud right about now, but today was different.

They walked slowly for a while, going uphill toward the summit of Tumuleiah. It was only a twenty minute walk, but relaxing. They said very little to each other on the way. The sun was already going down.

When they had reached the summit, they looked toward the house and past it. The sunset was a brilliant red, with streaked clouds in the middle of the sky. Although the city was in the distance, the gray tall buildings seemed subdued by the hand of God, looking less substantial than what was nearby. After a while, Jane spoke up. “I love it here.” Odysseus could see she had a tear in her eye. “I can't even believe it's real.”

“It's as real as my love for you,” he said. She leaned into him and he put his arm around her. They walked over to a bench that had been set up for viewing in this area. When she sat down, Odysseus knelt on one knee. He was surprised at how nervous he felt. He hoped he didn’t mess this up. Feeling himself still too proud on one knee, he went down on the other too.

They had talked about maybe someday doing this, but she had not thought him that serious. Her heart skipped a beat.

“Jane,” he said, looking deep into her eyes, “will you marry me?” He held out a ring: gold with a precious stone, maybe topaz or some other light bluish stone.

“Yes,” she said, knowing the tradition and what it meant. “But how did you get the ring?” she said.

He smiled. “I had the smith make it. He said he does it special for lovers.”

“I love it,” she said. “And I love you! It is so wonderful, this new life we have together. I cannot imagine any other life than this one.”

“Neither can I,” he said. He sat down now beside her and put his arms around her for a moment and she rested in his embrace.

“So, when do you want to get married?” he said. “I am told there is a ceremony and everything that people do. It is from a very old tradition.”

“I would like to get married as soon as my husband learns to dress,” she said.

He looked down. He was wearing a pair of green pants with a blue sweater. “What,” he said. “Don't you like the way I dress?”

“Not if you dress like that,” she said. “If I'm going to be your wife, I'm going to have to teach you better.”

“Yes, sir,” he said.

“Oh, don't treat me like that,” she said. “I just want my man to look good when he goes about.”

“Why the change?” he said.

“Well, before,” she said, “it was like it was my job, being your wife. I did not want to impose too much on you. But now that it’s your choice, I feel I can speak up about certain things.”

“Hey,” he said “we're not married yet!” He gave her a smirk.

She laughed. “So I say, let's do that as soon as we can. Does it take long to get ready?”

“I just moved into the neighborhood,” he said. “I don't know yet. I’ll go back to my source and find out more about this custom of marriage.”

“Great,” she said. “I look forward to it.”

They walked slowly on, admiring the scenery. Watching birds fly overhead, they held each other. “I love this place,” she said. “Do you think it will stay this way forever?”

“I hope so,” he said. “But you can never know. If it doesn’t, will you still be my wife?”

“Always,” she said.

“Glad to hear it,” he said.

It was night time. The patient opened his eyes and looked around the room without moving his head. Cameras were stationed around the room, so he closed his eyes and waited.

In another room, the security camera triggered a computer response program that sent a feed to the Director and the Doctor. Within a few minutes both men stood in the computer room looking over the recording. The patient had opened his eyes, but did not move his head. “Hmmm, odd,” said Dr. Chin.

“Dr. Chin,” said the Director, “could you tell me about this?” He was pointing to the brain function monitor.

The monitor was showing some odd patterns. “That's unusual,” said Dr. Chin. “Let's check the chip functionality.” Turning to the other bank of monitors, Dr. Chin pressed a few buttons. “Hmmm,” he said. “It appears that the chip functionality is increasing dramatically and so is the brain activity. They are growing together. Just what we had hoped.”

“What does it mean?” said the Director.

“It means that they are running massive parallel processes,” said Dr. Chin. “The brain is faster when linked to the circuitry, and the chip is faster when linked to the brain. They run parallel processes while solving problems.”

“But what problem is it solving now?” asked the Director.

“I couldn't tell you that,” said the Doctor. “That would require mind reading. I can tell you this though. The part of the brain that is active right now is the memory center, so perhaps the chip is analyzing these memories. I find that fascinating. In fact, I should make a note of it.”

Having no other observations to make, Dr. Chin and the Director left for the night. The patient, lie perfectly still and muttered quietly, “Transference complete.”

On a blue carpeted floor, T-5529 played with blocks while the child care workers watched. Watched was probably too strong a word, since most of their attention was given to receiving and sending their own feeds. They communicated with family and acquaintances, performed over-the-feed transactions and learned about trivia and interesting facts that tickled their minds. To the outside observer it looked like two women, expressionless, staring at nothing in particular in total silence. Every once in a while, they looked again in T-5529's direction to make sure she was still okay.

T-5529 played in a small sectioned off area by a flexible gate. In the room there were four other children, also sectioned off by themselves so that caring for them would be easier and to prepare them for the world they were about to enter. When they grew up, interactions with other people would not be as important as their ability to process information, learn, and make decisions. For this reason, every child had his or her own toys that fostered these traits.

The workers looked beyond the room, receiving feeds and checking on the children from time to time.

When 8:00pm came, T-5529's mother came. She said hi to the ladies, and with complete cordiality, picked up her child and left. She did not talk to her daughter, as she was still finishing work over the feeds. She performed triage for a technical support firm. Once the case was assigned to the correct AI, she would move on to the next case. She was quite efficient at her job and had been steadily working her way up in the company.

When she got home, she and her daughter stepped out of the pod and entered the house. Her husband, D1298, was already home. “Food is ready,” he said to both of them.

Absently she said, “Okay,” in a ghost-like manner. Her mind was on finishing up the feeds for her job. She was nearing the end. They sat down to eat. She worked through most of dinner, but then suddenly, as if returning from a trip, said, “Hello, everyone. How are you?”

“Doing well,” said D1298.

“Good,” she said. Then she turned on another set of feeds, those used for entertainment and news. Her husband, was also going through those feeds that interested him. He was interested in the news, but was also subscribed to a learning feed. He was hoping to change careers in the future and was trying to get trained in AI programming. It was becoming a big field and would pay better than his current job.

T-5529 sat at a quiet table with her mother and stepfather eating silently, their minds somewhere else.

When she was done, she excused herself and went to her room to play.

At the end of dinner, T-5529's stepfather said to his wife, “Guess what I heard today?”

“What is that?” she responded.

“I received a bit of news over the feed about Samuel.”

“Really. Is he still trying to convince everyone to get out of the cities before it’s too late?” she said.

“This feed said that he had been spotted in a junkyard with a group of people,” he said.

“Sounds like his style,” she said.

“He wasn't all that bad, was he?” said her husband.

Anger flashed across her face. “He wanted to take us all out of here and have us live in the mountains or something. He wanted us to live off the land on roots and berries with no feed access. Cut off from the world!”

“But besides that, he was okay, wasn't he?” he said.

She stomped off into the bedroom.

Her husband went to see how T-5529 was doing. She had a piece of paper out with some coloring sticks. She was coloring a picture of some sort. That was good creative thinking going on. A good skill to have. So far she had what looked like a man or a woman. “What is that thing?” he said, pointing to a green object over the head of the woman in the picture.